Word "merge changes" troubles

J

JoH

Hi,

we are confronted with the following problem:

Secretary had to make modifications to certain Word docs (Word 2002). She
prepared the documents in her "My Documents" folder. She mailed them to her
boss who placed them in a directory where only HE has write access. She then
deleted the original local directories where she had stored her "work" copies.

When the secretary now OPENS the documents from the location where she has
only read access, she keeps getting "merge changes into..." messages. From
some experiments that we did, it seems that she will get this message for
EACH time that she has made a modification to said document. Since she will
have to apply modifications from time to time, it looks like over time she
will need to click away more and more of these messages, which is obviously
annoying...

What is exactly the problem, and how to solve it?

tia for feedback,

JoH
 
J

JoH

I read that article, too. But it's not exactly clear to me.. How exactly does
this mechanism work? Could it be solved if we temporarily assign "write"
permission for her over the offending docs, or would this only solve the
problems with *previous* changes she made to the documents, and will the
problem return each time she makes new changes. (she normally isn't supposed
to have write access to the documents in that folder)
 
A

ANONYMOUS

It all depends on how you save the document:

When you save the main document, in addition to its content and fields,
you also save its connection to the data file. The next time you open
the main document, you're prompted to choose whether you want the
information from the data file to be merged again into the main
document.

If you click Yes, the document opens with information from the first
record merged in. If you open the task pane (Tools menu, Letters and
Mailings submenu, Mail Merge command), you are at the Select recipients
step. You can click hyperlinks in the task pane to modify the data file
to include a different set of records or to connect to a different data
file. Then, you can click Next at the bottom of the task pane to proceed
with the merge.

If you click No, the connection between the main document and the data
file is broken. The main document becomes a standard Word document.
Fields are replaced with the unique information from the first record.
 
J

JoH

Sorry for the confusion.. But this is not about a mail merge document :) I
don't know the exact mechanism, but it's a mechanism that detects different
versions of the same document, and proposes to merge changes into an older
copy (I think?). It happens sometimes when you launch an attached Word
document, leave the mail open and at the same time save the doc from Word
with changes into a folder (I think). It's this mechanism that causes the
trouble somehow.

Hope that clears it up
 
A

ANONYMOUS

Well in that case try this:

Tools, Options
General Tab
The 4th item is about "Confirm Conversion at open"
Uncheck this box.

Let us know if this helps.
 
B

Beth Melton

Indeed it is annoying! It's caused by sending file attachment within
the application. Here's an article that covers more on this topic and
how to turn the behavior off. Make sure you note the update at the
bottom about removing AdHoc.rcd.

""Do you want to Merge Changes?"
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=107

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
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